How man in 'suspicious' Castro death identified uncertain

It is uncertain how a man who was found unresponsive in the Castro by San Francisco police last month and who later died identified.

Corey Ahrens, 48, of Roseville, California, was found by police early in the morning June 29 in an alley/parking lot near 18th and Castro streets nearby several Castro gay bars.

The San Francisco Police Department is still investigating what it has termed a "suspicious" death. Ahrens' cause of death is still unknown. The San Francisco Medical Examiner's office has not yet released its report.

Ahrens' son, Corey Scott Ahrens Jr., 27, told the Bay Area Reporter in a Facebook message that his father had a wife and two step-children. Ahrens Jr. has been estranged from his father since he was 15 years old and did not answer many questions from the B.A.R.Ahrens Jr. lives in Oroville, California and is married to Sarah Noel Ahrens, who told the B.A.R. that the elder Ahrens' wife and friends were surprised and devastated by his sudden passing.

"We heard from a close friend that was close with his dad, and also, his wife finally reached out to us," Sarah Ahrens told the B.A.R. in a Facebook message. "All we know from his friends that were close is that he was doing really good and they are devastated about how sudden it was."

On the day the elder Ahrens was found unresponsive, police responded to a call around 12:50 a.m. about a person down on the ground in the alley/parking lot behind Walgreens on 18th Street. Officers who arrived on scene found an unresponsive man lying on the ground.

Aid was rendered to Ahrens, but he was later pronounced dead at the scene.

Greg Carey, chief of the volunteer group Castro Community on Patrol, who has been in contact with SFPD regarding Ahrens' death, said the cameras recently installed in the Walgreens parking lot off Castro Street might have captured what happened. CCOP volunteers were not working that Thursday night or Friday morning.